8
Ronald Deibert, John Palfrey, Rafal Rohozinski, and Jonathan Zittrain
But the myth of openness that characterized this fi rst phase remains an attractive
model for citizens to collectively aspire to, even as it is carved up and colonized by
powerful actors and competing interests. The core elements of an open commons have
now become the touchstones for a set of constitutive principles to be shored up and
defended, as opposed to assumed away as invincible. Perhaps ironically, what were
once assumed to be the immutable laws of a powerful technological environment are
now potentially fragile species in a threatened ecosystem.
Phase 2: Access Denied (2000 to 2005)
We call the second phase of Internet development, from roughly 2000 to 2005, the
“ access denied ” period. During this second era, states and others came to think of
activities and expression online as things that needed to be managed in various ways.
The initial reaction to the mainstreaming of the Internet, by states such as China and
Saudi Arabia, was to erect fi lters to block people from accessing certain information.
In this second phase, governments shook off their laissez-faire approach to Internet
regulation and began to intervene more assertively in cyberspace.
The world may appear borderless when seen from cyberspace, but sovereign state
lines are in fact well established online, as is regional variation. It was the prospect of
these lines emerging that formed the underlying rationale for the ONI as a joint
research project among our respective institutions in 2002. We initially focused much
of our research on states in the Middle East and North Africa, Asia, and Central Asia,
where the world ’ s most extensive fi ltering takes place. Our research has since come to
cover states in every region of the world, including North America and Western
Europe, where forms of speech regulation other than technical Internet fi ltering at the
state level are the norm. A central component of our research is fi eldwork conducted
in situ. Two regional networks we helped form and continue to support — OpenNet
Eurasia and OpenNet Asia — aim to monitor censorship and surveillance practices in
their respective regions. OpenNet Eurasia was formed at the beginning of the ONI and
consists of researchers, technologists, and lawyers from across the Commonwealth of
Independent States (CIS). Building on our work in the CIS, we formed OpenNet Asia
in 2007 through support from the International Development Research Centre.
OpenNet Asia is composed of 14 academic and advocacy partners from 11 Asian
countries. OpenNet Eurasia made key contributions to Access Controlled , and similarly
we draw on contributions from members of OpenNet Asia in this volume to provide
a grounded perspective on information controls in the region.
Filtering practices and policies vary widely among the countries we have studied.
China continues to institute the most intricate and fast-acting fi ltering regime in the
world, with blocking occurring at multiple levels of the network and covering content
that spans a wide range of topic areas. Though its fi ltering program is widely discussed,
Ronald Deibert, John Palfrey, Rafal Rohozinski, and Jonathan Zittrain
But the myth of openness that characterized this fi rst phase remains an attractive
model for citizens to collectively aspire to, even as it is carved up and colonized by
powerful actors and competing interests. The core elements of an open commons have
now become the touchstones for a set of constitutive principles to be shored up and
defended, as opposed to assumed away as invincible. Perhaps ironically, what were
once assumed to be the immutable laws of a powerful technological environment are
now potentially fragile species in a threatened ecosystem.
Phase 2: Access Denied (2000 to 2005)
We call the second phase of Internet development, from roughly 2000 to 2005, the
“ access denied ” period. During this second era, states and others came to think of
activities and expression online as things that needed to be managed in various ways.
The initial reaction to the mainstreaming of the Internet, by states such as China and
Saudi Arabia, was to erect fi lters to block people from accessing certain information.
In this second phase, governments shook off their laissez-faire approach to Internet
regulation and began to intervene more assertively in cyberspace.
The world may appear borderless when seen from cyberspace, but sovereign state
lines are in fact well established online, as is regional variation. It was the prospect of
these lines emerging that formed the underlying rationale for the ONI as a joint
research project among our respective institutions in 2002. We initially focused much
of our research on states in the Middle East and North Africa, Asia, and Central Asia,
where the world ’ s most extensive fi ltering takes place. Our research has since come to
cover states in every region of the world, including North America and Western
Europe, where forms of speech regulation other than technical Internet fi ltering at the
state level are the norm. A central component of our research is fi eldwork conducted
in situ. Two regional networks we helped form and continue to support — OpenNet
Eurasia and OpenNet Asia — aim to monitor censorship and surveillance practices in
their respective regions. OpenNet Eurasia was formed at the beginning of the ONI and
consists of researchers, technologists, and lawyers from across the Commonwealth of
Independent States (CIS). Building on our work in the CIS, we formed OpenNet Asia
in 2007 through support from the International Development Research Centre.
OpenNet Asia is composed of 14 academic and advocacy partners from 11 Asian
countries. OpenNet Eurasia made key contributions to Access Controlled , and similarly
we draw on contributions from members of OpenNet Asia in this volume to provide
a grounded perspective on information controls in the region.
Filtering practices and policies vary widely among the countries we have studied.
China continues to institute the most intricate and fast-acting fi ltering regime in the
world, with blocking occurring at multiple levels of the network and covering content
that spans a wide range of topic areas. Though its fi ltering program is widely discussed,